


Relax

by NiCad



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meditation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiCad/pseuds/NiCad
Summary: Din gets hyper-anxious before a dangerous mission, and it's driving the two Force-sensitives on the ship insane.Time for some meditation.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	Relax

**Author's Note:**

> I'll fess up. I've had two (very very minor) panic attacks since Wednesday. Everything's fine - I just need to calm down. So I banged this thing out over lunch and thought I'd share in the event that maybe it helps anyone else.
> 
> All you need to know about Rayne for this is that she's Force-sensitive and has some pretty decent mind control abilities. If you're new to my stuff, are curious about it, and need some additional distraction, head on over and check out [Crossroads](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22311970/chapters/53293408). (Kinda dark and angsty though, so might not be your thing at the moment. YMMV.)

“Goddammit,” Din whispered to himself as he corrected an error on the navicomputer. His hands were shaking and he kept fat-fingering the wrong inputs.

He was an anxious mess.

He was used to getting into and out of horrible situations. On his own. With a team. That was fine. That was life. Had been his life for more than thirty years.

Since the kid had dropped into his life, he’d tried to focus more on the “getting out” part, which had been met with mixed success, but they’d both survived, so he called it a win. The last time he’d deliberately gotten into something, the skirmish on Nevarro, it had damn near cost him his life. _Never again_ , he’d told himself, afterward. _We’re avoiding trouble_.

And here they were, getting right back into it again.

Only this time, they were a family.

He was dragging his family into danger, and even though there was no other way to go about this, it drove him nuts. He’d put himself in the position of genuinely caring about other people and now they were at risk and he was not equipped to handle that.

One of the many reasons he had not started a clan of his own.

He did not want this responsibility.

* * *

Down in the hold, Rayne was dealing with an equally anxious baby. Both she and the kid had their own anxieties about the situation, but Din was an absolute lighthouse of it to the two Force-sensitives on board, so they were forced to deal with his, as well. For the kid, that meant throwing his rubber frog on the floor, reaching for it and crying instead of climbing down to get it himself, and when Rayne got it for him, throwing it down again. After the third round of that, she’d had enough. She was about ready to jump out of her own skin at the both of them.

Time for drastic measures.

She pulled the sorry excuse for a mattress off of the bunk and placed it on the floor, then placed the baby on it before going up the ladder to the flight deck. “Are we in the position to go to autopilot for about ten minutes or so?”

Din let out a tense sigh. “We can be. What’s up?”

* * *

“Meditation? Now?” Din’s voice was incredulous.

“Yes.” Rayne pointed to the spot on the mattress next to the kid as she knelt before it. “You’re driving him nuts, which means you’re both driving _me_ nuts, so we’re having a group lesson on how to quiet our minds for a little bit.”

He sighed and took a seat, legs folded and crossed so that his knees rested inside of his elbows as he hooked his hands together, his knees not allowing him the traditional Jedi meditation kneeling position. The baby was already situated, having practiced this with Rayne several times before. Din supposed he was willing enough. He’d done this kind of thing before as a child, shortly after being brought to the Mandalorian covert, when he was having trouble adjusting.

“Everyone ready?” Rayne asked, her tone having switched from annoyance to calm and smooth.

The baby cooed in response, and Din dipped his chin in a nod.

“Okay. Close your eyes. Make it dark inside your head. Make it black against your eyelids. Take a deep breath in through your nose as I count to ten. Here we go.

“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

“Now let it out through your mouth as I count back.

“Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

The sound of full breaths from baby lungs through a tiny nose and from warrior lungs through a helmet modulator formed a lovely chorus in the hold of the ship.

“One more time. In.

“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

“Out.

“Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

“Very good. Now, think about the places in your body that are tense and see if you can let that tension go. Maybe it’s in your forehead. Maybe it’s in your ears. Your jaw. The back of your neck. Your throat. Your shoulders. Your arms. Your fingers. Your chest. Your back. Your gut. Your thighs. The backs of your knees. Your calves. The arches of your feet. Your toes.

“Go back up again and see if you can smooth those out. You can lie down if that makes it easier.”

A quiet rustle of fabric as the baby did just that. A few tinks of beskar as Din followed suit.

“Remember the beach.”

Ah, yes, the beach at one of their previous stops. A small slice of heaven if there ever was one.

“Remember laying on the sand. Remember how warm the sun was on your skin. Remember how that warmth soaked through you to the bone. Remember how it felt to turn over. When the sun warmed you through your back. Remember how sleepy it made you. Remember the sound of the breeze through the trees. Remember how it would rustle through the leaves. Remember the little thump when the pinecones would drop off and hit the ground. Remember the sound of the waves of the water. How it would ripple on the sand. Remember standing in the water, just up to your ankles. Remember how the water would pull the sand out from under your feet as the waves receded.

“Remember these things. Remember that time. For a few more minutes.”

Rayne was quiet as she listened to Din and the baby breathe, finally enjoying the silence in her mind. When the few minutes were up. She spoke once more.

“Take one more deep breath in as I count.

“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

“Out.

“Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

“Good. You may sit back up and keep your eyes closed.”

They both took their time sitting back up. She kept them there for another minute.

“You may open your eyes now.”

The giant brown orbs of the baby’s eyes once more opened to the world, while the Mandalorian tipped his chin up just a bit.

Their minds were quiet.

“Better?” Rayne asked.

The baby burbled.

“Better,” Din said.


End file.
